This invention relates to tape cartridges of the floating roller type.
One type of belt driven tape cartridge utilizes a drive belt that extends about a driven roller and an idling or floating roller, and which bears against the rolls of tape to turn them. The axis of the floating roller shifts position as tape moves from one type roll to the other, and the floating roller is typically provided with small axial projections at its opposite ends to rotatably support the roller on the cartridge housing. This allows the axis of the roller to shift position, so that it can approach closely against the periphery of each of the tape-supporting reels when almost all of the tape is unwound therefrom, the reels typically having flangeless peripheries to permit very close approach by the floating roller. An example of a cartridge of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,230. It has been found that problems can arise in prior floating roller cartridges, in assuring stability of the floating roller against tipping, in the starting of tape on the flangeless reels, and in the creation of unsightly scratches on the cartridge housing.